The Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1998

Calculation of student’s income

1.—(1) In calculating the student’s income for the purposes of regulation 18(1)(b) there shall be taken into account his income (reduced by income tax and social security contributions) from all sources, but there shall be disregarded the following resources—

(a) the first £800 of any income other than income of a kind mentioned in paragraphs (b) to (p) below and other than any sum treated as income under sub-paragraph (3);

(b) the first £3,865 of any income by way of

(i) scholarship, studentship, exhibition or award of a similar description bestowed on the student in respect of the course (in pursuance of a sponsorship scheme or otherwise) not being an award bestowed in pursuance of section 1 of the Education Act 1962(1), and

(ii) in the case of a student released by his employer to attend the course, any payments made by that employer;

(c) in the case of a student for whose benefit any income is applied or any payments are required to be applied as described in paragraph 5(5)—

(i) the whole of that income or those payments if a parental contribution ascertained in accordance with Part II or a spouse’s contribution ascertained in accordance with Part III is applicable (at whatever amount including nil that contribution is ascertained to be), or

(ii) the first £1,810 of that income or those payments if such a contribution would be applicable but for the fact that the student has no parent living or is such a student as is described in paragraph 3(b), (c), (d), (e) or (f).

(d) any … pension, allowance or other benefit paid by reason of a disability to which the student is subject, paid by any state authority or agency, national, regional or local, by an employer or any former employer, or by any other person, which is not subject to income tax under the Income Tax Acts or, where the student’s income is subject to the tax legislation of another member State, which would not be subject to tax under that legislation if it made provision equivalent to those Acts;

(e) any bounty or other payment received as a reservist with the armed forces of a state of which the student is a national;

(f) remuneration for work done during any year of the student’s course;

(g) in the case of a student in whose case a parental contribution is by virtue of Part II of this Schedule applicable (at whatever amount, including nil, that contribution is ascertained to be) any payment which is made under covenant by a parent by reference to whose income that contribution falls to be ascertained;

(h) any payment made for a specific educational purpose otherwise than to meet such fees and such requirements for maintenance as are specified in Schedules 1 and 2;

(i) any benefit or allowance paid to the student for the benefit of a child of his or of whom he has custody or care or for whom he provides accommodation, by any state authority or agency, national, regional or local;

• …

(j) any payments made to the student in pursuance of an order of a competent court for the benefit of a child who is not his child of whom he has custody or care or for whom he provides accommodation;

(k) any benefit or allowance paid to the student to meet or defray the cost of housing by any state authority or agency, national, regional or local;

(l) any means tested benefit or allowance paid to the student by any state authority or agency, national, regional or local, in respect of a period during which he was not available for work for any reason;

(m) the first £3,030 of any pension, allowance or benefit paid for the benefit of the student and not referred to in any other sub-paragraph, including any … pension paid to the student as a widow, child or dependant;

(n) any payments made to the student under the programmes of the European Community known as COMETT(2) and LEONARDO DA VINCI(3);

(o) any payments made to the student under the action scheme of the European Community for the Mobility of University Students known as ERASMUS(4) or the European Community programme for foreign language competence known as LINGUA(5);

• …

(p) any payment made to the student out of access funds held by the institution at which he attends his course.

• …

(2) in the case of a student who makes any payment in pursuance of an obligation incurred before the first year of his course, in calculating his income for the purposes aforesaid there shall be deducted therefrom—

(a) if, in the opinion of the authority, the obligation had been reasonably so incurred, an amount equal to the payment in question;

(b) if, in their opinion, only a lesser obligation could have been reasonably so incurred, such correspondingly lesser amount (if any) as appears to them appropriate;

except that no deduction shall be made from the income of a married student where the student’s spouse is a dependant for the purpose of Part III of Schedule 2 and, in pursuance of paragraph 13(1) thereof, the payment is taken into account in determining the spouse’s income.

(3) In a case where the student is the parent or step-parent of an award holder in respect of whom a contribution is ascertained under Part II of this Schedule, so much of the amount (if any) by which the contribution is reduced under paragraph 4(3) as the authority consider just shall be treated as part of the student’s income for the purposes of regulation 18(1)(b).

(4) Where the student receives income in a currency other than sterling the value of the income shall be—

(a) if the student purchases sterling with the income the amount of sterling the student receives for it, otherwise

(b) the value of the sterling which the income would purchase using the rate for the month in which it is received as published by the Office for National Statistics in “Financial Statistics”.

(1)

1962 c. 12; the relevant provisions, as amended, are set out in Schedule 5 to the Education Act 1980 (c. 20); section 1(3)(d) was amended by the Education (Grants and Awards) Act 1984 (c. 11), section 4; section 4 was amended by the Education Act 1994 (c. 30), Schedule 2, paragraph 2.

(2)

OJ No. L222, 8.8.86, p.17.

(3)

OJ No. L340, 29.12.94, p.8.

(4)

OJ No. L166, 25.6.87, p.20.

(5)

OJ No. L239, 16.8.89, p.24.